DC-3 Arrives at the Florida Air Museum

 

It is always a sad day when any aircraft makes its final flight but that happens when an aircraft outlives its economic usefulness. Remarkably N839M served actively for 68 years and was still in good flying condition. Thursday, January 28, 2011 was a bright sunny day with a touch of early morning fog as we arrived at the offices of Lee County Mosquito Control. N839M, S/N 43-15700 sat on the ramp looking like a genteel old lady rather than the workhorse of its earlier life. My mission was to be part of a 3 man crew who would ferry this venerable gal to the Florida Air Museum – a more desirable resting place than a bone yard for discarded relics.

Born in 1943 as a Douglas C-47 Skytrain military cargo variant of the DC-3, it had troop seats and litter bearing capacity. Undoubtedly it saw extensive military service during WWII and was stationed at Rhein-main AFB in 1956 and Bahrain in 1959. Having reached military retirement age, it was acquired in 1975 by Lee County Mosquito Control and converted to spray use. In later years, improvements in technology and more economical methods and equipment had relegated this C-47 to status as a hangar queen taken out weekly for a little exercise.

On this day pilots Jim and Rope were the primary crew and I was auxiliary crew assigned to locate the aircraft at KLAL and Sun ‘n Fun on arrival. Rope had flown this aircraft in 1975 and now was crew on her last flight. After the requisite walk-a-round to verify flying status we entered the cockpit, belted in and I watched as the pilots ran the check list. Finally the ground crew connected the auxiliary power supply and the engine rotated through 15 blades before turning the mags on. I had expected the vibration and noise on engine start and, while I was grateful for the ear protection Rope had provided, I held the headset in my lap and reveled in the loud music of those twin Pratt & Whitney engines. What I had not expected was the time it takes to bring the engines up to operating cylinder head and oil temperatures. Finally we taxied out to the runway and pivoted the aircraft on a dime as the tail wheel followed the mains in a circle. Acceleration on takeoff roll was not excessive for this grand old lady of 1936 vintage design but lift off from the 3 point established the climb angle and we very quickly reached our cruise altitude of 1,000 feet agl. This was high altitude as her normal cruise had been at 300 feet while spraying.

After a few short minutes of flight Rope waved me into the right seat and under the tutelage of Jim I took the controls. A few shallow turns established the controls are heavy compared to the light aircraft I was used to flying but this genteel lady was forgiving and responded well to my inputs. On arrival at Lakeland, we made a high speed (125 knot) pass down runway 9, banked to the port side, established downwind and final  and touched down gracefully as befits this lady of the air. 

It was a thrill to take part on this final historic flight. While sad N839M has made her last flight to the Florida Air Museum, it is a much better fate for her to become an esteemed educator teaching youth and adults about the history of the design, its long and current use in aviation as well as maintaining a dignified presence for all to see.